Claiming that out of 132 law officer posts available in the principal seat of the Madras High Court, only three posts were allotted to persons from the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalavan has approached the High Court seeking adequate representation to such communities.
Admitting the plea moved as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition, a Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and M. Sundar ordered notice to the State government returnable by August 7. He wanted the court to ensure adequate representation to women and minorities in such appointments.
Alleging that there was no transparency while making such appointments, advocate M. Palanimuthu appearing for the petitioner said, “Apart from law officers, all State-owned public undertakings, Commissions and Corporations have their own standing counsel to represent their cases in the High Court for which payments are made only from the general account of the State government. “Even in such appointments reservation for SCs/STs are not followed.”
After the intervention of the High Court, the government notified guidelines for such appointments on April 24, and even those guidelines did not provide any reservation to SCs/STs, women and minorities.
He wanted the High Court to direct the government to incorporate appropriate provisions in the guidelines to ensure 25% representation to persons belonging to the SCs/STs.